The Detroit Crawl ( www.thedetroitcrawl.org ) has just added a Yahoo message board...
Unfortunately, a lot of folks who run newer Microsoft OS are having probs getting into the chatroom...

This is what I have come up with so far...does anyone know if we can by pass the Microsoft VM or install something that can make the applet run?


Customer Fact Sheet on Removal of Java from Windows



Content Updated: February 26, 2003




As part of our January 2001 settlement agreement with Sun, which was intended to resolve disputes concerning Microsoft’s development and distribution of the Microsoft virtual machine (Microsoft VM), Microsoft will no longer be authorized by Sun to have the ability to support the Microsoft VM after January 2, 2004. As a result, we will stop including the Microsoft VM in new releases of Windows and other products, and we will stop distributing Microsoft® Visual J++® as well. We recognize that many of our customers have invested in programs that make use of the Microsoft VM, and we want to work with you over the coming months to help you migrate to alternate solutions.

The Situation
As mentioned above, our settlement agreement with Sun does not authorize Microsoft to make any changes to the Microsoft VM, even security fixes, after January 2, 2004. Because of this, we cannot recommend that customers continue to use the Microsoft VM in production environments after January 2, 2004, and want to work to ensure that all customers can migrate to an alternate solution before that time.

Impact on Microsoft Products
We have started removing the Microsoft VM from new products going into distribution. Specifically, this means that we will not include the Microsoft VM in any Windows releases from this point forward, including service packs. We will also not distribute new versions of the Microsoft VM via download from our Web site. We will, however, continue to provide security fixes to the Microsoft VM to existing customers until January 2, 2004.

Customer Implications
These decisions do not impact your use of the Microsoft VM today in your environments. If you are currently using the Microsoft VM, you can continue to do so and there is no requirement for customers to add or remove technology from their PCs running Windows at this point. If you are a developer who has used our developer tools to create Java applications, you may continue redistributing the Microsoft VM to your customers in accordance with the terms of the license agreement for those software development developer tools.

However, if you are using the Microsoft VM in your environments or developing software that uses the Microsoft VM, you should plan now to migrate to an alternate solution by January 2004. We are committed to helping you with that migration and have listed some options below to make the process as painless as possible.

In addition, because we are not authorized by Sun to make fixes to address security vulnerabilities after January 2, 2004, you should have a plan for disabling the Microsoft VM on machines in your environments before that time. We are currently developing a solution that works with SMS or other deployment technologies that you can use to lock down the Microsoft VM on systems and prevent it from loading. We will announce the availability of this solution when it is completed.

Information for Developers
Microsoft recommends that developers cease development work that depends on the MSJVM and consider migration options for existing code that depends on the MSJVM. Some of the available options are:

Use Visual J# .NET or Java Language Conversion Assistant (JLCA) to migrate Java code to .NET. To help developers with this migration, Microsoft plans to deliver enhancements to both products.
Replace functionality currently provided by Java code with other technologies such as HTML with JScript, ActiveX controls, ASP.NET, Macromedia Shockwave or Flash.
Replace the Microsoft VM with a Java Virtual Machine from another company.
We are committed to assisting developers with migration efforts. For more developer information, see http://www.microsoft.com/java.

Thank You
We understand that this will be a challenging transition but are committed to working with you to ensure you can move quickly to alternate solutions. If you have questions, feedback or suggestions for ways we could offer additional support or options, please contact your Microsoft representative.

Thanks for any help that anyone can provide...

Hi Applekisses - go to http://java.sun.com/getjava and get the Sun Java 2 Runtime Environment (JRE). Use that, because that's Java. Microsoft's thing isn't really.

ian said:

Thanks, Ian! I had a feeling you or Ice would come to my rescue